1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a telephone call tracking and billing system and method, and more particularly to a system and method in which a subscriber calls a central location, enters identification and billing code information, and then places a desired call which will be logged according to preselected criteria. Reports and billing statements can subsequently be generated and provided to the subscriber.
2. Description of Related Art
Accounting for time spent on the telephone for various clients is important to professional practices, businesses, and others, especially if clients are billed for the time spent working on the client's matters. Much of the professional's time spent working on client matters over the telephone may not be recorded, and hence the professional's time is not being adequately accounted for.
Telephone time recording and accounting systems are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,526 (the '526 patent) discloses a timekeeping and accounting unit which keeps track of the user's work activity. The user pushes pushbutton switches to identify the client and work activity, and a start pushbutton to start recording time. A stop pushbutton is pressed when the work is complete, and the time spent on that particular activity is recorded.
When a call is received, the time being recorded for the interrupted work activity is stopped by pushing a telephone interrupt pushbutton. The duration of the incoming call is recorded, and can be identified for billing purposes by pushing pushbuttons to identify the client. At the end of the telephone call the user must push the end pushbutton to make a record of the duration of time spent with the interrupting client. The recorded data is printed on a paper tape.
The system disclosed in the '526 patent is directed at keeping track of incoming calls that interrupt work in progress. The system requires the user to depress switches, and input client information for billing, each time a call is received. The device of the '526 patent does not disclose use for outgoing calls. Even if the device could be used for outgoing calls, the operation of the device requires constant input from the user in the manner of pushing various pushbuttons to input client data, and to start and stop recording time. The user could conceivably utilize a stopwatch and a notebook to record the same information that is printed on the paper tape output without requiring any additional effort. The level of effort required can cause the user to forget, or to just stop using, the system.
U.S Pat. No. 5,559,872 discloses a telephone time recording system that records the opening portion of a telephone conversation along with the total call duration. The call duration is recorded as synthesized speech along with the opening portion of the conversation. The recording can be played back for correlation of the subject matter of the call and the call duration for billing purposes. Disregarding whether recording even a portion of a client's conversation is wise, the device of the '872 patent requires the user to play back the recording and to manually correlate the voices to people, and the people to a particular matter. As in the '526 patent, the system of the '872 patent requires a high level of effort by the user.
There are also various devices in the known art that are used to provide value-added services to user calls, and to provide the user with call cost metering to give the user the costs of various telephone calls. However, there is nothing known in the art that provides the features of the present invention as described herein below.